COOPSTRIPES

The raNts and miSadventures oF a Krazy pinStriper

Vanning

Vanning is a compulsion, an obsession, an occupation, an affliction, a fascination, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it, must. Those who don't, think it's a waste of time. For me it is a calling.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Saturday, February 18, 2017

First in a new series of art prints. From the archives of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.

In the early 60's Ed Roth was one of the premier custom car builders in the world. He built cars because he loved doing it. Car show promoters wanted him and his cars in their shows. His way of making a living was to sell merchandise at these shows. He did a lot of airbrush t-shirts in those days. He came up with the idea of doing a caricature of a customers car. Some with wild creatures protruding from the top. Thus the monster shirt was born.

But the most popular thing he painted was his iconic creation Rat Fink!. He soon was printing Rat Fink silk screen style on shirts. He soon augmented these with other designs and characters. Ed created a lot of very cool art for these shirts. hundreds of designs thru the years. Many had vehicles that were make and model specific. Some were general statements, patterned after the hipsters of the day.

As an artist I have come to love the art that Ed had created. He didn't actually draw all of it. He hired several artists over time to draw his designs, or rework existing designs. In my opinion these designs should be preserved. Many of the original drawings have been lost. Especially the ones from the early days. Ed's art is as important to pop culture and modern art as the likes of Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali. The likelihood of his art surviving being printed on t-shirts isn't very high. My intentions are to produce his art in a form that will insure its survival.

These serigraphs are printed the same way Ed would have printed his shirts. One at a time. All by hand.

The first one done is the Dodge Van art. Why? Because I am a van guy and I have a couple of these vans. Artist prerogative I guess. But also because these designs were all but forgotten. Ed had hundreds of designs on screens that were on the shelf, but rarely got printed. I have been privy to a lot of these. There are many very cool designs that haven't seen the light of day for years.

The first time I saw these van designs they were on water slide decals that Ed had done. I am not sure when they were originally drawn. My guess is that they were drawn by Robert Williams, but I am not sure about that. The first serigraphs are all van designs. The Dodge, and Ford vans are completed. There will soon be a Chevy van and a Volkswagen bus, all original Roth designs. There will also be an original Econoline van art drawn by me, included in this group.

The original drawings not being available, I had to redraw them in order to make the screens. Close attention was paid so as to make them as close to the originals as possible.

There are 4 vans in this series I plan to do all of them this way.

It takes a fair amount of time to do one of these. Eventually I hope to do some more of the old designs. The original Rat Fink serigraph was done some 20 years ago, for the 30th birthday of Rat Fink. That is where the germ of this idea came from. It was done exactly the same way I am doing these designs.

I am patterning these after the series Ed did with Doug Nason in the early 90's. There were several runs of the Rat Fink. There were 63 of each run. One on a white background. One on black, and one that was the black line art only that Ed color bombed the same way he colorized the t-shirts in the early days of the Roth studios.

63 was picked since the official birthday of Rat Fink was 1963. The serigraphs that we will be doing will be the same amount 63. There will be 50 of each in full color and 13 that will be line art and colorized using the same techniques that Ed used on his first series.

Each print comes with a certificate of authenticity on the back. complete with series info and artist signatures and signed by Ed's widow, "Trixie" Roth. The overall size of the Dodge print is 18 by 24 inches. The Ford print is slightly larger, 19 by 25. They were printed on 140 lb. cover style, archive quality, French paper. Using high quality aqua based printing inks.

It will be a while before the van series is complete. I am doing this with the help of a fellow artist, Matchstick. He is a screen printing and sheet metal artist working for Gene Winfield, residing in Lancaster California. His help has been invaluable. The price for these serigraphs is $100.00 each. Depending on how many are left when the van designs are complete, there could be a price for a complete set. That will be determined later. I plan to have them all completed no later than the end of this year. If you are interested, keep checking here for updates. They can be purchased at my on line store at www.coopstripes.bigcartel.com .

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

It
has been quite a while since I have had the opportunity to do anything
with this blog. I want to update you followers as to what has been going
on. When I was in Vegas for the S.E.M.A. show, Scotty and I went down
to Parker, Arizona to visit my buddy, Jimmy C. He has a 1965 Dodge A100
van that I have been bugging him for years to sell. While we were there I
wanted him to show us the van. It was in a storage lot where it has
sat for over 20 years. the van had 2 inches of dust on it. The tires
were rotted away and anything rubber had since turned to concrete. But,
the body was in excellent shape. Very little rust. After some haggling and working on Dena,his wife. Jimmy sold us the van. the problem is that we both wanted the van. so we bought it together! since we had the trailer with the vans from the sema show we loaded the Rainbow van in the back and I drove the A100 pickup back to Ohio. More on that later.

We had the Surfink and the L600 at a show in downtown Vegas. We were a hit.

On the way into Vegas we were stopped by the biggest DOT asshole I have ever come across. After an hour of harassment he finally gave up trying to pin something on us..

into the trailer she goes

there were a lot of doodles on the dash and the walls. They looked familiar

After some research we have been told that this van was the Roth Studios shop truck in the mid 60's. WHAT A FIND. You have no idea how excited I am about this one!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Heading west to eventually arrive at the SEMA Show.. Making a stop near Salt Lake City for the Kulture Krash car show. A bunch of my pinstriping bretheren put togeather a show in Riverton , so we decided to hit it on the way.and of course, a stop at the In n out burger

Thursday, May 15, 2014

It wont be long till I have this baby on the road. I am workin' hard to get this done for the Nationals and it looks like I just might make it., The interior is close to being finished.

Down to the last headliner panel.

The engine cover is done Got to put everything together, to make sure it will all fit. Got the rubber gasket installed. .

The center panel goes up. This is tough when you do it alone!

The side door panel is the last major piece left of the interior. I had to take the door off again to get it fit and install the door gasket.

Headliner done. comin out just fine!

padding the front of the bed .

I've got 2 surfboards that go with the van one inside and this one I will use for a show sign.

using up some of the paint layin around

The engine cover fits together pretty good.

door panels are installed. The speaker covers arrived too!

Ron is fitting the carpet. I am fitting the carpet on the wheel wells

This board is going to hang on the wall. I carved the design into it and glassed it

and a little one shot.

Cut the wood for the floor and glued it into place.

It is starting to come together I am trial fitting it all.

Chris and Kenny are the local glass gurus. They are installing the windshield. Gona do some tricky stuff!

Brown glass?????

The hope is to set the windshield with urethane and eliminate the ugly wide rubber gasket.

This was the first cut. Makin me nervous!

Hmmm. not bad.

After it was cut they install a trim gasket and set it in black urethane.

And Blacked out the edge just like the new cars come. The center is sealed with urethane,thus eliminating the vertical rubber in the center.

Man I'm lovin this

The bottom of the overhead console will go on last. Most of the electronics are under here. The controls for the windows and side door, switches,receiver for the remotes, Sirius radio, and more, may need more work.

Ron cut the carpet and bound the edges. If you have been paying attention, you will remember there is a battery box recessed below the floor. It is much better that the stock battery box that is inside the van behind the driver. The problem is the box is right where you kneel to get in the van. Instead of trying to hide the access to the box I decided to make a cover that fit into the carpet made out of foam rubber. I made a plug original of Rat Fink and Tikis and made a mold. Using that I cast this kneeling pad from flexible foam. It works nicely.

It's thick and quite easy on the knees.

With all that I have to do yet, I most likely will not have the opportunity to post again before the Van Nats, where I intend to premier the Surfink. I have a lot of finish work to do yet. Polishing and detail underneath.lots of striping to do yet. A sign to do,as well as regular work, a show and the Rat Fink Reunion coming up next month.If you don't make it to the Nationls I will be posting finished pics after.

Eagle at the 06 van nats

after repaint

the latest color change

the Barnstormer

My chopped Astro Van

chop @ Bonnieville 1994

My 1962 corvair van

Flamin' Banana

Coop's first chopped van 68 Dodge

coop's tandem astro

THE EAGLE SAGA

It was 30 years ago and I attended the largest van event that I ever went to. Even tho I had had a van for some 4 years, this was to be only my 3rd van event. The nationals at Bowling Green, Ky was sensory overload to the van enthusiast. 6300 vans in one place? It still stirs the emotions. I belonged to a club from Newark, Ohio at the time called, North Fork Vans.

It was hot that weekend. Very hot.. To hot to even move. Got up sat to enter the show & shine. This was to be the first for me. When I got to the check in area we discovered that there were nearly 1000 vans in the line ahead of us. Didn’t do it. After parking back at the club camp we went to look at the vans. The heat was oppressive, and we spent most of the time in the bleachers watching the vans inch their way through the judging lanes,occasionally walking down to take a closer look. There were so many vans it was impossible to see them all. It amazes me to this day how the N.S.V.A. group was able to judge all of them and pick winners in just a few hours. There were a lot of real nice vans. Many were even outstanding. Saw the B.F.G. van, future shock. It was extreme, especially for then. But the one van I kept hearing about was a van from Ohio. Built by Greg of Akron. The van was the Flying Eagle 2. I never saw it. But a number of people said it was the best thing they had ever seen. I the host group must have agreed since the Flying Eagle 2 was awarded top honors at Bowling Green. including best overall paint ,and best interior. I never did see it..until it started showing up in every van publication there was and back then there were a lot of them.

Greg toured the van all over the country that year. Taking top honors at many shows, including Best of Show at the west coast van nationals in King City Calif . Over the next few years I became a fan of Greg's style of paint. He was the “Foose” of his day. His paint was on many of the top winning vans for years. The Superstar, Rocky Mountain High, Hotel California, Rolling thunder, and others were among the elite of the vanning scene. But the Flying Eagle 2 was Greg’s personal van and probably the best one he ever did. What ever became of it.?? Well in 1978 he repainted it. The second paint job was not as elaborate as the first but was still very nice. I know this from pictures I saw in a magazine called small car trends. But I still hadn’t seen it. Then later that year he sold the van to a guy in Louisville,Ohio , Ben Merkle . Merkle Had the van at the 7th. Nats show & shine. in Cortland. Never saw it. Later that day someone told me it was there. Hunted it down but it was locked up and I had to settle for seeing the exterior… after that it was never seen again. Fast forward 24 years to the Nats ,2003, in Kansas City. A long time Vanner friend comes to me with pictures of a van that he just acquired ,and wants to know if I would be interested in helping him restore it. Woaaaa. It’s the Flying Eagle. And it had been on fire! Well, to actually find this van after all these years was real cool ,but the story behind it was even cooler.. Blaino bought the van on ebay. as the story goes, Merkle was driving the van one day and it stalled at a light. Then there was smoke ,then fire. The fire department came and put it out but the van was pretty messed up. The van was insured, and after settling with the ins. company they sold the van at auction. No one wanted it. It had no parts a junk yard could sell and it ended up selling for $100. That person put it on ebay and it sold for a ridiculously low price. That’s when Blaino came to me. Blaino lives in Oregon. The van was in Michigan. And after a year of banter Blaino offered the van to me. I took it. Then Mikie and I took a 12 hour trip to Michigan and I finally got to see the Flying Eagle. Upon inspection and a little detective work , we determined that the fire was caused by a fuel line leak.The rubber hose at the carb, either cracked or wasn’t properly installed and sprayed gas over the engine., That's why it stalled. Then the gas hit the exhaust and fooom. The fire was contained to the intake and above. The paint on the block wasn’t touched.The fire melted the wiring harness, heater box and then came through the fire wall. The front of the cab was burned pretty good, some wood will have to be replaced but most could be saved. The pictures to follow will show the progress of the restoration… oh yes, in 2000 the van was repainted again, supposedly by Greg at least partly. It has his mural work on it. The theme is still the sailing ship, but it is now a futuristic look. Actually I like it. The idea is to eventually restore it to its original paint job, but that will entail striping the van completely as all 3 paint jobs are still on the van, and at least the first 2 are lacquer. If you look just right you can still see the old paint outlines. I am going to fix the van as it was before the fire for the time being. The restoration is pretty much done . Now i'm working on improving it. you know I can't just leave it alone. coop